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I tend to avoid online gaming... connection too slow and the internet is already addictive enough as it is.

As for favorite decks, it really depends on my mood at the time, but it generally cycles between the following:
a Mirrodin-block artifact deck that doesn't really accomplish anything(seriously... I intentionally built it in such a way that it will never actually win a game without my opponent being stupid)
a Time Spiral block blue deck that basically just repeats itself until I get the mana base required to go from "speed through deck" to "steal creatures"
my B/R "Madbent" deck
the always-fun Simic deck(well, actually I have two of these... one is entirely common graft and the other is more or less a Ravnica-block GU deck)

*e* Oh right, I also have a Rebel deck that I enjoy using... ironically it works best when I'm the "emperor" in an Emperor Duel...

- There are way too many highly visible ninja in anime, which is terrible, as that's totally contrary to the flavor of Kamigawa-block ninjas. It took me forever to finally decide on one (although I haven't really watched much of Negima). But I like how well Sakashima the Impostor's ability can work with Ninjutsu.
- Yes, Nietono no Shana is a blatant ripoff of Umezawa's Jitte.
- I know Epic spells aren't necessarily Arcane, but it fit the flavor on both sides, what with the whole summoning a supernatural being from another world and all.
- I originally made a card of Miroku of Inuyasha for this sig, but I didn't like how it turned out, plus I don't like Inuyasha anyway, so I replaced it with Eboshi, who fit much better flavor-wise.
- Yes, Eboshi's guns are anachronistic with the Kamigawa block, but her whole character's flavor was spot-on. What better character for a war between mortals and spirits?
- M:tG R&D has stated they wanted to avoid "sacrifice a human" on their cards, but it fit the Oyashiro-sama legend well enough that I did it anyway.
- Kohaku was designed to be part of the Dragon Spirit cycle, down to the mana cost logic and graveyard ability.
- Coming up with titles for every legendary creature was a pain. It's a cool pattern in block, but it's still a pain. Because some of the ideas I came up with were very cringe-worthy...
- Kamigawa mechanics that I managed to use include soulshift, spiritcraft, channel, epic, arcane, bushido, offering, and ninjutsu.
- I'm very happy with how every card has a Japanese word or name in its title. I didn't plan it that way, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

The problem with Kohaku is that the Dragon Spirit cycle was pretty much designed to abuse the "legend rule," and you can't really do that in this case... and I'm glad you at least included someone from Rurouni Kenshin in it.

Right now, the set's still too new on MTGO, so the prices are inflated and I haven't really tried it out yet. Although, some of the cheap commons and uncommons are tempting me to try out an interesting deck based around tap/untap mechanics with Dichotomancy and Sky Hussar...

I'm not really liking the current standard too much right now, though. It just feels way too fast; almost every deck I see is beatdown of some sort, which is hard to race with my own quirky, relatively slow decks like my blink/Galepowder Mage deck. I should probably stick to extended, lol...

So I actually got around to building that quirky, casual tap/untap deck, and so far it's been doing reasonably well against other Extended decks in the casual room. It's a bit slow, but it can really stall most creature decks very well. In my latest game, I was able to perpetually hold off 5 superior creatures from attacking for several turns while my lone Sky Hussar went in for the kill. Still haven't done anything really impressive with Dichotomancy yet, but I'm willing to give it more time.

Sky Hussar is there to draw lots of cards while tapping my untap ability creatures (turning a cost into a benefit) and to serve as a beefy flying finisher. Silkbind Faerie, Minister of Impediments, Azorius Guildmage, and Icy Manipulator can all tap down enemy creatures, which I can then steal with Dream Leash or copy with Dichotomancy. Springleaf Drum combines well with the tap creatures and provides some mana acceleration.

The deck is still very vulnerable to mass removal, it does poorly against creatureless decks, and I have difficulty handling some enchantments as well. Still needs tweaking, but I've been pleased with the results thus far.

I am so tempted to build around Evershrike, and possibly Quillspike. Not as many untappers as I had hoped, though. Retrace looks interesting, but can be expensive to build around, especially in Extended.

Endless Horizons works rather well with Retrace. I expect it to end up in quite a few Kithkin decks alongside Cenn's Enlistment. Provided anyone runs either, that is.

Anyway, since the prerelease is this weekend, I figure I might as well give my opinions now. (Note: The monocolor cycle with hybrid-cost abilities are being included in the hybrid part.)

Mono-white: White's main power boost this set is actually in the form of the RW and WB hybrids. The mono-white cards are really just more of the same in most cases.Personal Favorite card: Spirit of the Hearth

Mono-blue: Typical counterspells, drawing and bouncing, along with Sanity Grinding, one of the more devastating Chroma cards. However, while the first three are "typical" for blue, "typical blue" is generally rather fun to work with.Personal Favorite card: Sanity Grinding

Mono-black: Really fun if you like -1/-1 counters. If not, then there's always the creature hate and life drain black is so good at using.Personal Favorite card: ... the Extinguisher

Mono-red: Burn, burn, burn, haste, trample, burn, burn... Then again, red is represented by a fireball, so this sort of thing should really be expected.Personal Favorite card: Either Cinder Pyromancer or Unwilling Recruit

Mono-green: Helix Pinnacle would be amusing to run in Emperor format. There's also Primalcrux and Regal Force, which are both very likely to appear in my mono-green Extended deck, should I get my hands on them.Personal Favorite card: Primalcrux

White-black hybrid: A few of these seem interesting on their own, at least one outright confuses me, and the rest seem to be following in Orzhov's footsteps. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you.Personal Favorite card: Stillmoon Cavalier. Pyrrhic Revival gets a special mention.

Blue-red hybrid: These are all over the place. Which is pretty much what I expect from UR.Personal Favorite card: Call the Skybreaker

Black-green hybrid: As with mono-black, these are really fun if you like -1/-1 counters. Other than that, there's a lot of worms here... everything else is pretty much what you'd expect from BG.Personal Favorite card: Doomgape

Red-white hybrid: Basically a repeat of Boros. Only instead of humans, you've got hobgoblins and... dwarves? Also, the RW Liege is more or less an activated Lightning Helix in creature form, so that's something worth mentioning.Personal Favorite card: Rise of the Hobgoblins

Green-blue hybrid: These are all over the place, as well. (It's almost as if WotC doesn't know what to do with UR and GU. ) As with RW, the GU Liege gets a special mention for untapping your creatures. During your opponents' untap steps.Personal Favorite card: Invert the Skies

Artifacts: The Skulkin are a bit of a letdown, and probably would have been better as colored cards. Scarecrone works rather well with Reaper King, and can even act as an alternative way of bringing him out, should you find him in the graveyard somehow. Ward of Bones is an interesting card. The golem is hurt severely by the fact that it needs other creatures to pick it up. Leering Emblem can go either way, really.Personal Favorite card: Scarecrone

Lands I'm not bothering with. There's six of them. Five are another Cairns cycle and the other produces goats.

*e* Some time in the near future, I'll probably post a few combos for the Eventide cards.

I absolutely loved the Shadowmoor set, but I think I'm a bit disappointed overall with Eventide, at least from a budget player's perspective. I've seen the set already (full official set spoilers up on the Gatherer function from the main website as of today). I had high hopes for red/blue, one of my personal favorite color combinations, but the only card that really interests me is Crackleburr, and its power depends on how many other UR creatures you have. Problem is, most of them cost too much mana to be effectively played alongside Crackleburr.

I had high hopes for a lot of good new Q (untap) creatures, but there are only 5, and none of them are of much use to my dedicated Q deck (currently my second best deck, and personal favorite pet deck). There is one sweet common though: Banishing Knack. In my Q deck with Puresight Merrow, that spell might as well read "UX: Return X target non-land permanents to their owner's hand, then fix your next draw." It also combos ridiculously well with all the other untappers in the deck, like Leech Bonder, Silkbind Faerie, and Order of Whiteclay. Now I just need to figure out what to take out for it...either Icy Manipulator, Oblivion Ring, or Dream Leash.

The other card that I desperately want to build around is Evershrike. Besides having one of the coolest pictures I've ever seen, that card could go very well in my casual Nomad Mythmaker/Kitsune Mystic aura deck. It can probably replace the Auratouched Mages as my finisher; it costs 1 less mana, and can resurrect itself as long as I have an aura in my hand. Plus, it just looks way too cool.